Honeywell enhances SMART position sensor

December 14, 2009 - Honeywell introduced the SMART Position Sensor in a 75 mm Linear Configuration, enabling highly accurate motion control, and improving operation efficiency and safety. Its simple, non-contact design eliminates mechanical failure mechanisms, reducing wear and tear, improving reliability and durability, and minimizing downtime. "SMART" stands for Superior Measurement, Accuracy, Reliability, and Thinking. The SMART Position Sensor can essentially think for itself. It uses a patented combination of an ASIC and an array of magnetoresistive (MR) sensors to determine the position of a magnet attached to a moving object. Sealed packaging allows robustness in most harsh environments such as shock, vibration, extreme temperatures, salt water, and dusty or rough terrain. Installation is simplified to four simple steps versus up to 14 steps for some competitive products, reducing set-up costs. The SMART Position Sensor replaces multiple sensor and switch components that competitive products often require, eliminating extra wiring, connections, and external components, therefore reducing design, installation, and supply chain complexity. Its built-in redundancy and self-diagnostics provide additional safety benefits and reduce equipment downtime. For design engineers, the SMART Position Sensor provides design and interface flexibility because of its air gap of up to 3.0 ± 2.5 mm [0.118 ± 0.098 in] between the sensor and the magnet, and a variety of output options (analog standard; CAN bus and RS232 interface available). The device also has electronics on-board, making it easily adaptable to most commercial platforms, eliminating the need for additional external electronics. Because it offers stable, temperature compensated output, designers do not need to expend engineering resources to build their own output algorithms, reducing total cost of ownership. The SMART Position Sensor, 75 mm Linear Configuration, may potentially be used in: